There’s something unusual about Charlie’s eyes. I’ve thought that before, but now it comes to me: there’s no darker line around the outside of his irises. The greeny-hazel colour is clear, like bottle glass, and goes right up to the whites.
His mouth tilts up at the corners and I jolt, my concentration returning to the song. I suppress a strong urge to giggle at his expression, and then the rap kicks in and I can’t help singing along. He throws his head back and laughs at me.
I really,reallylike making him laugh.
‘Catchy, huh?’ I nod at him significantly as the chorus returns.
‘Catchy,’ he confirms. ‘But bonkers.’
‘Oh, yeah, it’s totally bonkers,’ I reply in agreement.
He picks up my iPod Touch. ‘Don’t you keep your music on your phone?’
‘Some, but I can’t fit fifty thousand songs on there.’
He looks at me. ‘You have fifty thousand songs?’
I shrug. ‘Yep.’
‘Bloody hell!’ He studies my iPod again. ‘I didn’t even know The Avalanches had a new album out.’
‘Last year,’ I reply. ‘Sixteen years since their first one.’
‘They took their time.’
‘You never listen to music while you work?’
He shakes his head. ‘It used to distract Nicki.’
‘She never listened to it either?’ I ask as he places my iPod back on the wooden worktop.
‘No, she couldn’t concentrate,’ he says softly, and I’m pained to hear the joy seeping out of his voice.
The happy song seems out of place now, so I reach for my speaker and turn the sound down until it’s muted. I can never bring myself to end a track midway.
Charlie goes and fills up a glass of water from the sink.
‘Do you want a tea?’ I ask, remembering what I came down here for.
‘Nah, I’m good, thanks. Better get on.’ He heads back outside.
Chapter 11
If Charlie is Morris, then who the hell is Timo?
I find out in the next diary.
Nicki was sixteen when her parents divorced and her father – a French chef – took a job at a five-star Thai resort. She and her sister were devastated, but, while Kate’s sorrow metamorphosed into anger, Nicki pined for her dad terribly. When he invited his daughters to join him for Christmas, Kate – Nicki’s older sister by three years – refused, opting to stay home with their mother instead, so Nicki went alone.
Nicki and Charlie were just friends at this point, although Nicki did have a crush on him. She’d recently broken up with her boyfriend – a little shit called Samuel who’d stolen her virginity and then messed her around so much that I’d been screaming at her to break up with him weeks ago.
Well, pages. Honestly, her diaries areriveting– I’m properly invested.
So, when Nicki goes to Thailand, she’s single. Charlie, meanwhile, is going out with ‘Too Perfect Tisha’ – Nicki’s nickname, but I agree: it suits the girl.
I remember parts of Thailand from when I was fifteen, which was the last occasion Wendy took me to see Mum on a cruise ship. But Mum cruised around Asia for only two years, and, by the time I was old enough to visit her unaccompanied, the married captain had dumped her and she’d got as far away from him as possible.
The way Nicki writes about Thailand makes me want to book my ticket straightaway. And I really might have to. I’m here in Cornwall, soaking up the atmosphere, which is perfect for the Morris section of the story, but I know I won’t be able to write well about a country I’m not familiar with.
